Proverbs 6:1-19

Practical Admonitions

6My child, if you have given your pledge to your neighbour, if you have bound yourself to another,*2 you are snared by the utterance of your lips,* caught by the words of your mouth.
3 So do this, my child, and save yourself, for you have come into your neighbours power: go, hurry,* and plead with your neighbour.
4 Give your eyes no sleep and your eyelids no slumber;
5 save yourself like a gazelle from the hunter,* like a bird from the hand of the fowler.

6 Go to the ant, you lazybones; consider its ways, and be wise.
7 Without having any chief or officer or ruler,
8 it prepares its food in summer, and gathers its sustenance in harvest.
9 How long will you lie there, O lazybones? When will you rise from your sleep?
10 A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest,
11 and poverty will come upon you like a robber, and want, like an armed warrior.

12 A scoundrel and a villain goes around with crooked speech,
13 winking the eyes, shuffling the feet, pointing the fingers,
14 with perverted mind devising evil, continually sowing discord;
15 on such a one calamity will descend suddenly; in a moment, damage beyond repair.

16 There are six things that the Lord hates, seven that are an abomination to him:
17 haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood,
18 a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that hurry to run to evil,
19 a lying witness who testifies falsely, and one who sows discord in a family.